Producer: Melbourne House
Price: £9.99 cass, £14.99 disk
Author: Design by Alan Clark and Bob Clardy, programming by Mike Singleton

Melbourne House's first game based on JRR Tolkien's fiction was one of the most popular adventures ever, and a classic of computing game. The follow up to The Hobbit was something of a sleeper, despite The Lord Of The Rings getting 9 out of 10 in Issue 26. For their third Tolkien game the software house has changed genres and produced a strategy game. The game is based on events detailed in Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. You play the parts Frodo the Hobbit, who has recently inherited The One Ring from his uncle Bilbo Baggins. This ring is the most powerful evil magic item in existence and was created by the evil necromancer Sauron.

Sauron made 19 other such rings and gave them to the leaders of the Elves, Dwarves and Humans. Once these rings were placed on the fingers of the recipients, they came under the power of The One Ring.

Due to a long series of events, the ring has come into your hands and you must destroy it by dropping it in a volcano situated in the middle of Sauron's evil realm. So you must muster your troops and friends to dispose of the evil artefact.

When the game is loaded you are presented with a map of all the known lands in Middle Earth. In the centre of the map is a gauntleted hand and to the left are three command options; File, Memo and Time.

You control the gauntlet via either the keyboard or the joystick and by pressing fire on the map you get a more detailed view. Here you can see which units of troops and which individuals are hanging around. Friendly personnel are displayed as shields and it is possible for a large group of both individuals and units to be present in the same location.

You can find out full details of who is in this group - called a stack - by accessing your controls again. Here you are given a full rundown of your forces on a group by group, or Individual by individual, basis. The details include such basic information as name and commander, as well as Energy, Determination, Steadfastness and Virtue. The level of these factors decides how well your forces move, fight and remain loyal.

It you press your fire button twice you obtain a sub-menu with four commands. This enables you to either set a specific destination for your troops, order one group to follow another, Jan your units together or return to the main menu.

Once you have given them your orders you return to the main map. Here you can either choose File (save the game and set various options), Memo (state of the game info) or Time (which sets the game in action and make your troops obey your preset orders).

The aim is to move your troops to strategic forts, castles and the like so they're not decimated by Sauron's forces. When Sauron's troops attack yours, the game time is stopped again (as you make your orders) and the screen displays the campaign map with a pair of crossed swords representing battles.

The game then moves over to a special combat screen depicting every person in the battle. Soldiers are represented by small, animated figures and you can scroll across the battlefield to see them all.

You can control individuals by moving a cursor onto them and pressing fire. You can then either take direct control over them, or merely select an enemy for them to attack.

If combat is going badly - and it often does - you have the option of letting the ring-bearer wear the ring. This enables you to disappear from the sight of ordinary opponents and sneak away. There are disadvantages to this, though - your Virtue decreases at an alarming rate (so that you run the risk of becoming a servant of darkness, losing the game) and The Nine Nazgul can easily see you. The latter are very powerful magical servants of Sauron, who can all too easily defeat you, stealing the ring and returning it to Sauron.

Overall, the game's graphics are generally average - sound is nonexistent - and the combat sequences are pretty hard to control. That said, War in The Middle Earth goes to prove that if a games concept is sound and has the ability to capture your imagination - which this product certainly does - you don't need lots of flashy graphics to produce an enjoyable computer game.

Melbourne House
£9.99/£14.99
Reviewer: Phil South

Holding the rights to games from the wacky world of the famous John Ronald Reuel Tolkein has its benefits, dunnit? Like being able to whip off a new game every now and then when the mood takes you, based loosely on the magnificent fantasy 'tour de France', Lord Of The Rings trilogy. But War in Middle Earth? Where does that fall?

I admit that I booted this game with a steely glint of suspicion in my eye, looking every which way for a reason to slag it off as forcefully as I could. But after about fourteen hours play on the trot I had to collapse with defeat. Try as I might, I couldn't find extreme anything to poke fun at, not even the graphics.

The scope of the game is broad indeed, like the unsettling boast on the packaging. "Multiple playing levels let you control all the characters and armies that appear in Lord Of The Rings, from the broad sweep of strategy, right down to individual characters actions on the battlefield"(!). Coo, is that a fact?

WIME is, in fact, a new game from Mike "eight billion locations and a cast bigger than Ben Hur" Singleton, the writer of the Lords Of Darkness games. He specialises in that sort of thing, of course, but this is more of a strategy game than his usual graphic strategy adventures. I'm reminded of some of those wargames, the like of which Owen and Audrey Bishop used to review; you know, PSS and CCS make them? You have a map on your screen, and you move a cursor around the screen with keys or various flavours of joystick. WIME has the Mike Singleton touch, though, in that you can not only deploy whole regiments of humans, orcs, dwarves and elves, but also zoom in closer to control your own characters, like Frodo who carries The Ring.

You can wear The Ring, or just carry it. Wearing The Ring makes you invisible, but as you will know if you've read the books, this starts to alter your characteristics. For the worse. You can give The Ring away, but be sure you know who's got it, because you must take it to Mount Doom and destroy it by chucking it into the Crack Of Doom. Once the Ring is destroyed, that's the end of Sauron's power, and the game too.

The look of the game is fairly unexciting, on the face of it, and is not the sort of thing that'll appeal to your average action-packed laser spitting arcade junkie, for sure. But it is a gigantic strategy game, and for those of you who need something a little more meaty to get your teeth into (and there isn't a Pepperami handy) then this could be just the thing. Some folks prefer this kind of adventure to a pure text affair, and why not? I look at pages of text on screen all day and it drives me mental. This is a big game, for big heads.

Label: Melbourne House
Author: Mike Singleton
Price: £9.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

It's not often a wargame gets a large review in SU, which could be regarded as being a little biased, but let's hope that WIME puts things to rights. It's not really a true wargame. It's a wargame mixed with an RPG mixed with a bit of adventure and just a smidgen or two or arcade qualities. Four basic elements, all of which have proved themselves in the past in their respective fields, but mixed, do they work? Well, funnily enough they do, and reasonably well I might add.

First of all the credits. The main dude responsible for taking three books worth of complicated but very, very enjoyable reading matter and putting it all as a form of interactive entertainment is none other than Mike Singleton, whose games are all basically original and brilliant. WIME is no exception.

You take control of the forces of good and you have to try to get the infamous magic ring of corruption to Mount Doom and throw it into the fire. Pitted against you are the evil forces of Sauron, consisting mainly of two types of creature, both pretty hideous. The first, and easiest to beat in combat, is the common orc. These foul, pig like creatures travel round in packs of around a dozen, and basically wander everywhere. The second type of nasty, and these are pretty darn hard to beat even at the easiest of times, are the Nazgul. Black, deathlike riders, these in on the evil ring and are generally near invincible in combat.

You begin in command of around 100 'units'. What exactly the unit contains can vary from one of the games' specific characters to a group of 30 dwarves. Each of the units has a series of statistics, and it's these which you use to judge which moves to make when and where. Some statistics, such as strength, govern how good the character(s) will be in battle, others, such as dedication, give you some indication as to how fast they're going to be able to move across the map. The final statistic, their virtuosity, is the key factor in getting the ring across the map.

The longer you have the ring, the more corrupt you become. What you have to do is get the ring all the way across the map at a steady rate, swapping between different characters to use as ring bearers.

There are three different playing modes. In the main overview map, you deal with all the loading and saving bits, along with the time advancement icon. The map shows the entire playing area, and the positions of all your units. It does not show the position of the enemy, so there's no room for cheating.

In the main command mode, you get an expanded area of the map, with all the different terrains and features labelled, by scrolling around, the names of all the towns, along with all your units are displayed. Move the pointer over the icon that represents one of your units (a shield) and click once. Now, if you move up or down on the joystick, you can view all the characters in that group. Double click and you go into command issue mode. There are three things you can tell a group to do. You can tell them to go to a specific place; you can tell them to join up with another group; or you can get them to follow another group. This is all done by selecting which you want to do on a menu bar, and then clicking the cursor over the appropriate target.

When you've issued all the commands you can possibly want to issue, go to the overview map, and click on the time advancement icon. This is the cue for action to begin. All the orders you've given out will begin to be executed. Of course, when you're moving 100 units around on a map, you are bound to get into a ruck sooner or later, and this is where the game gets really good. You are given a list of all the adversaries battling it out, yours and Sauron's. Press fire, and you go into the game's arcade sequence.

All the men are shown in a semi-3D representation of the battlefield, and it's a race against time to get as many men involved as possible. You are given a small circular pointer. Click in one of your men, and then on one of the enemy, and that man will run off to do battle. The game is designed so that each enemy soldier can only attack one target per round, so what you've got to try to do is to get as many men onto one target as possible. This bit is great. It's fast, it's frantic and it's fun.

Graphics aren't too bad; there's some nice detail on the main map, and the icons are both clear and recognisable. The battle sequences are very nice. Each of the enemy types looks different, as do the friendly armies, which more than compensates for the bland green background in this section.

It's very easy to do. It's also very hard to do. In fact it's up to you how hard to make it (choose out of 15 skill levels), 0 making the Nazgul amazingly easy to kill, 14 making everybody except you practically invincible.

I really like it. It may not appeal to all (arcade freaks stay away). But if you're a fan of the books, then you won't be disappointed. The attention to detail is amazing and the feel of the book has been captured perfectly. Strategy buffs, or even people who want to spend a more productive Sunday afternoon rather than defeating the semi-quaser Thraglets from Venus again, why not give it a whirl? Mike does it again.

Melbourne House, £9.99cs, £14.99dk
PC version reviewed Issue 17 - ACE rating 914

Frodo has the same aim in the 8-bit versions of War in Middle Earth as he does in the 16-bit game reviewed three issues ago, but the way the player gets involved is radically different.

For a start, there simply isn't room on cassette-based systems for the detailed 16-bit location graphics found at character level: indeed the character level is not present. The adventure element is also missing: there's no need to go in search of items to give to leaders of the races of Middle Earth before their forces are put under your command. All forces allied to the cause of good accept your orders the moment the game starts.

The main map screen gives an overview of Middle Earth, and action takes place while it is displayed. Moving a pointer over a location on the main map and pressing fire calls up the more detailed, scrolling Campaign Map. Here orders can be given to units, locations and armies can be examined in more detail and status information on your allies called up. While the Campaign Map is accessed, game time is paused. The strategic element of the 8-bit versions is true to life - you don't get to see the deployment of Sauron's forces on the Campaign Map, so the only way to find out where his armies are is by running into them.

The combat sequences are much more detailed. Rather than just selecting a couple of options from a menu, you can pitch in and join the fray. When two opposing armies meet, the display can be changed to give a view of the conflict and the player is allowed to influence the outcome of battle by using a cursor system to direct the actions of individual soldiers. Your troops don't go into attack on a battlefield, but wait patiently until they are either attacked or told who to fight.

As would be expected, there's not so much graphic detail in 8-bit versions of War in Middle Earth, but if anything there's more of a challenge, with the option to set levels of difficulty. Fans of the Mike Singleton approach to games design will recognise his touch.

MACHINES: Atari ST, Amiga, Spectrum, Amstrad, C64, IBM PC
PRICES: C64, Spectrum, Amstrad cassette £9.99, disk £14.95, ST and Amiga £19.99, IBM PC and Compatibles £34.99

Toikien has proved a fertile ground for game designers. Not just the various officially licensed games from Melbourne House either - the Tolkien-esque world of hobbits, elves, wizards, and monsters bttling it out in mythical lands has been ripped off for countless adventure games.

Now Melbourne launch new Tolkien game - five years after their original Hobbit adventure topped the Spectrum charts for literally months on end.

War in Middle Earth is a world away from that original Hobbit adventure, with its lateral thinking puzzles and slowly filling in graphics beside certain locations.

War in Middle Earth is much more of war game-come-role playing game than the earlier Tolkien adventures.

As in the great book itself - the Lord of the Rings - the object in War in Middle Earth is to retrieve the ring - and keep it from the evil Sauron.

You ploy the port of Frodo Baggins - whose uncle Bilbo Baggins is well known in the Shire for his adventures - the most famous of which saw him discover a ring with strange powers.

In your quest for the ring you are accompanied by three fellow Hobbits, Sam, Merry and Pippin, Aragorn the Ranger, Boromir of Gondor, Legolas, Gimli a dwarf and the great white wizard Gandalf.

The game is played out on a massive scrolling map of the land of Middle Earth.

To examine any area of the map in detail you move the finger cursor to the required location. Press fire and time is suspended whilst you make your move.

The game uses a neat window system to provide additional information about your units. These are represented by shields. You are told several important pieces of information about each unit - and it is important in the game to try and know who is where, what there strength is and where they are going.

Windows also open during the battle sequences - to provide you with information on the enemy and your options. It is not always wise to stand and fight it out.

A further window can be made to open by depressing the fire button twice. This enables you to give instructions to your unit. You have four possible options: Return, Set to Destination - which enables you to send the troop to a specific destination, Set To Join - this orders the unit to join another one, and Set to Follow to follow you.

What makes Middle Earth more than just a Tolkien war game is the battle sequences. There is no sitting back and watching the computer work out the relative strengths and weaknesses whilst your warriors thrash around. You can directly influence the outcome by skillfully positioning your warriors - picking them up and moving them to skirmishes where your men are losing the edge. It is close hand-to-hand fighting - just as Toikien describes it in the books.

War in Middle Earth is as much a race against time as strategic challenge. You have to win time to discover the ring and destroy it by flinging it into the Cracks of Doom where it was forged.

In order to win the time to carry out the mission you have to keep the forces of evil at bay. To do this you need to mobilise on army by enlisting the support of the men of Dale, the Nations of the West, the Elves of Lorien and Mirkwood, the Dwarves of Erebor and the Iron Hills.

The campaign is lost if the forces of evil win back the ring and return it to Barad-Dur or Isengard.

The graphics and on-screen presentation of War in Middle Earth are superb. All of the icons, the various scrolls, and window information systems are neatly implemented.

The game has all the hallmarks of a game which has been crafted slowly and painstakingly. I can thoroughly recommend this game to Tolkien fans and anyone who enjoys a strategic challenge. Great stuff.

As a special treat to all Tolkien fans we have a bumper package to give away to the first person to write in and tell us the name of the third book in the Trilogy Lord of the Rings.

The winner will receive a copy of the game and also a copy of the board game - Middle Earth Role Playing System - as featured in AGM News. Send to Tolkien Compo, C+VG, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, London EC1R 3AU.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99
Amstrad CPC Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99
Commodore 64/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99

YAWN-ALONG-A-TOLKIEN

Melbourne House have been associated with Tolkien since their adaption of The Hobbit. Lord of the Rings and Shadows of Mordor were received well. War in Middle Earth is a something of a departure in the series in that, unlike its predecessors it is essentially a wargame.

Lord Sauron's ring of power, having come into Bilbo Baggins's hands (The Hobbit) has now been passed on to his heir Frodo. You control all the characters and armies allied to the fellowship of the ring - dwarves, hobbits, elves and men.

The game is controlled from three screens using a command cursor to select desired options. A map displays Middle Earth. Its. terrain types and positions of any allied units.

Lord of the Rings fans will notice errors in the accompanying booklet - not only are some of the names spelt incorrectly but the story's wrong in places as well and there turns out to be very little for you to actually do. The battles soon become tedious as its too easy to win even when faced with extremely unfavourable odds.

War in Middle Earth is very disappointing. Tolkien fans will find the lack of detail frustrating while wargamers will find this too straightforward to offer a lasting challenge.